The Leicester Mercury. Now you see it, now you don't! Whooosh cluck!

The Leicester Mercury does it again, posts an article about the McCanns, allows comments, finds they are mostly critical and....whoooosh...cluck! Gone!

Saved for posterity, here is today's article and the messages that were whooshed!


POLICE INTERVIEW LEAKS 'ARE SMEAR CAMPAIGN'

And the comments that didn't last very long!

**********Comments to the above article*********

Leave theMcCann's alone. They have done nothing wrong, who doesn't go out and leave their kids when they go out on the lash??

Pinnochio, Edinburgh

Kate McCann is quoted as saying that she and Gerry discussed Madeleine's comment for several minutes. That long, eh? Obviously an important subject! Then today, Clarence Mitchell is quoted as saying that in response, the Tapas Crew decided to increase the frequency of checks on the children, from every half hour the night before to, emmm, every half hour. Clarence also says that the Tapas Crew had their own listening plan instead of that provided by the Mark Warner company. I am sure I read that MW did not provide such a service at the Ocean Club because the apartments were so spread out and also because the McCanns' apartment, in particular, was actually outside the secure area of the complex, overlooking a public path on one side and a public car park on the other.

Muzzy, Warwickshire

What a sad senario. Madeleine told her mother that she was upset and they still left her and the twins the next night.....

chrissie, UK

I wonder what else we don't know about these "perfect parents". If they are not prosecuted for child neglect at lease then there is no justice.

Sherry, Newton

How on earth can the truth be a smear? I just don't get it.

Loz, UK

Smears and leaks have been coming from "Team Mccann" from the start when they lied about the circumstances, so what's new?

Sally, Europe

That's interesting for a newspaper site. You ask us to "have our say" but remove any comments that may be "unhelpful" to the Team McCann PR effort? You're not acting for Madeleine by doing that. The poor child

Mel, East Mids

I find this latest news very distressing indeed. As a mother with two young children I find myself repeating those qouted distressing words. It is heartbreaking. Those parents will have to live with this torture for the rest of their lives. I really don't know where I stand any more on the parents behaviour. Part of me says what they did was despicable and the other part grieves so heavily. A shocking story. M

Margaret, Rothley

********************Comments end********************

Now, this is an interesting quote from Clarence:

"The McCanns said the leak was an attempt to smear them as they launched their bid for a Europe-wide missing child alert system."

I wonder what he means by, "..launched their bid." I ask this because Missing Children Europe has been campaigning for a Europe-wide response to child abduction since 2001, and that organisation is, in fact, the European representative of the one which Gerry visited in the USA.

http://www.missingchildreneurope.eu/

"Faced with the absence in Europe of operational centres working at a professional level on a complementary basis with police and judicial bodies and victim support organisations, Child Focus (Belgium), La Mouette (France) and Aurora (Italy), decided to establish the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children, renamed "Missing Children Europe" in 2007."

"The solemn creation took place in 2001 at the European Parliament in the presence of EP-President Nicole Fontaine and European Commission Vice-President Vittorino. From the start thse two EU-institutions acknowledged the added value of a European wide umbrella organisation representing civil society organisations which work on a national or regional scale against child disappearance and sexual exploitation in all its forms."

"Missing Children Europe is the regional representative of the global movement of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington."

So, Gerry needn't have gone to the US. He could simply have visited the European representative of ICMEC in Brussels.

The McCanns will have no effect on whether this goes through the European Parliament or not....and especially since they have nothing whatsoever to do with its introduction. Missing Children Europe has been working on this for years. The McCanns have only attempted to hijack it.

So, Clarence, to me, the McCanns, "...launched their bid," simply says that the McCanns sought to hijack this project as their own idea, purely for the purposes of publicity.